


Moving Forwards

by crassjellyfish



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, IT Chapter Two Spoilers, M/M, Not A Fix-It, Reddie, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 05:35:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20595563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crassjellyfish/pseuds/crassjellyfish
Summary: Eddie has some unfinished business to take care of before he moves onorWhat happens after Eddie Kaspbrak dies





	Moving Forwards

**Author's Note:**

> hey! long time, no post. i saw it ch.2 last week and ive been in the midst of reading all the reddie fics i can get my hands on to cope, and i thought of this at 8am the other day after not sleeping all night. i havent written in a good while, and this wasnt beta'd, so please let me know if there are any errors! i hope you enjoy!

Eddie woke up. 

That’s not unusual, he wakes up all the time. What’s weird about this time is that he’s dead. 

Eddie sat up and watched as his best friends, the people he cares about most on this god forsaken planet, killed the clown that has tormented them since childhood. He cheered when the heart dissolves under the strength of all of their hands, and watched as Richie ran to him not a second later. 

"Eddie, man wake up, please, we did it," Richie cradled his cheek, and all Eddie wanted to do was reach up and grab his hand. 

_I know, I saw! You did it, Its dead, Its gone!_ Eddie tried to say, but his words fell on deaf ears. Beverly said something. 

"No he's alright, he’s alright. He’s just hurt, we gotta get him out of here!" Richie's voice grew more panicked by the syllable. 

_I'm okay! See I’m fine, but I might need a little help walking, my legs don’t seem to be working right this second,_ Eddie tried again to talk to his friends, to laugh it off and tell them he was okay. 

"Richie.." Beverly spoke so quiet, it was hard to hear her in the echoing cave. 

"What, what?"

"Honey, he’s dead." 

Eddie had never wanted to hit Beverly before, but he had the urge to smack her for lying to Richie. Why wouldn't she respond to him? Why would she say something like that? _Damn,_ he thought, _I know it looks bad but I’ll survive._

"We have to go, come on, Richie," Bev's pleas were echoed by Ben and Bill. 

Richie grabbed Eddie, leaned him forward and hugged him tight, not letting go for anything. Even as Ben and Mike dragged him away, he screamed for Eddie. 

"We can still help him! Let me go, GUYS WE CAN STILL HELP HIM!" 

Panic started to set in for Eddie, as he watched his friends drag Richie away from him, the cave collapsing around them. _Come back,_ he tried to yell, _I'm alive!_ But it was increasingly obvious they weren't coming back for him. Eddie closed his eyes as a large chunk of the cave roof landed on top of him. 

For the third time that day, Eddie woke up. He was outside the Neibolt house, or whatever remains were left of it anyway. He turned and saw the Losers standing next to him, Mike and Bill still holding Richie back from running to the ruins in front of them. 

Eddie wasn't stupid by any means. Had you asked him if ghosts were real before the summer of 1989, hell if you had asked him last week he would’ve laughed in your face. But today? After coming back to Derry? He knew there was no real logical conclusion for his situation, so he put it down as the next best thing he could think of. 

_Oh,_ he thought, _I'm dead. Holy fucking shit, I'm dead, what am I gonna do, fuck how did I do this, how did I let this happen I-._ With that new realization in his head, things began to fall into place. Beverly’s lie, Richie’s screams, the look on Bill’s face. It all started to make sense. 

As he came to that realization, Richie’s screams became deafening. _Can ghosts even go deaf?_ He thought. 

“Eddie! Let me go, Let me get him, Eddie!” Ben and Mike did everything in their power to hold richie back, to keep him from running into the wreckage of the house to get Eddie’s body. With every word, every scream, plea, and bargain, Eddie’s heart shattered. Every crack in Richie’s voice was another tear in the souls of the Losers. Bev and Bill stood behind them, trying their best to not shatter too. 

The five living Losers stood outside the house for a long time, crying, screaming, mourning their friend. And Eddie stood with them, doing his best to console them even though he knew they couldn’t hear his words. 

_I’m so sorry guys, I’m so sorry. If I had gotten down, if I hadn’t gotten ahead of myself by thinking a stupid fence post could kill whatever the fuck It was, you’d still see me. We’d be celebrating, not mourning. I love you all so much, fuck I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry._ He stood there as they all left for the quarry. _Gross,_ he thought, _that water is disgusting. You’d be better off washing up in a mud puddle._ He followed after them. 

They ran, and they jumped. A leap of faith, into the once known. But when they hit the water, no one splashed one another, there was no yells or shouts, or complaints about the amount of bacteria in the quarry water. There was silence. 

_Fuck guys, say something,_ Eddie mumbled to the unhearing group. _It should never be this quiet with Rich here._

“Y’know what? Eddie would’ve hated this guys.” Ben is the first one to break the silence. The tension still hung thick in the air, but it seemed to lessen ever so slightly at the mention of him. 

“What, cleaning ourselves with dirty water?” Eddie laughed for the first time since the cistern, and he started to feel better. Sure, he was fucking dead, but the most important people in the world were here, and they could still make jokes, so they’d turn out alright. 

The banter continued for a second, somber and melancholy, before they turned to Richie. 

“Right, Richie?” Bill tried to get Richie to respond, to say anything in this unnatural silence. And Richie broke. 

There was a silent look between the Losers, and they all made their way over to him. Eddie did too, sitting on the log behind him with his arms around his neck. No one said anything, not aloud. They gave him time to mourn, to cry, to sob, whatever he needed to do. They clung to him to keep him afloat, to ground him and tell him they were there, they would be the strong ones this time, it was okay to break. Eddie stayed there with them, with all of the people he loved, and held them tight. They all felt it, and even though they didn’t realize consciously what it was, they knew it was their Eddie. 

Richie broke the silence this time. “Thank you. I don’t have my glasses on so I don’t know who you people are, but thank you.” They all laughed, tears filling all of their eyes. “I legit can’t find my glasses though.” 

A chorus of “serious?” followed, as Ben, Bev, Bill, and Mike all dove under to try and find the glasses, leaving Richie alone. Eddie stayed with him, still holding him close. 

_I love you, Trashmouth,_ he whispered into Richie’s neck. _I’m sorry I never told you that._

To his astonishment, Richie replied in a tear stained voice. “Love you too, Eds. Always have, and I always will.” 

…

Eddie stuck around a bit longer. He saw Beverly and Ben off, and sent Bill home to his wife. He helped Mike pack as best he could, moving the tape to a place he could always find it and making sure he didn’t leave without the first aid kit the library kept lying around. 

He sat in the car with Richie as he drove to the kissing bridge, and smiled while he watched him recarve their worn out initials like a couple of teenagers. 

Richie stood up and looked out over the water, and Eddie stood beside him, his hand resting on Richie’s. They stood there like that for a long while, the sun moving through the sky above them. And then, Eddie turned towards Richie, and Richie did the same. Eddie leaned up and kissed Richie on the cheek, and Richie leaned into it. He knew he was there, he could feel him even if he couldn’t see him. 

“I’m gonna miss you, Eds.”

_And I’ll miss you, Tozier._

And with that, Eddie turned towards the other end of the bridge. He walked towards Stan, waiting for him with a knowing smile on his face. 

“Don’t worry, Eddie. He’ll be well taken care of.” Hearing Stan’s voice was a sigh of relief for Eddie, but he knew he was right. The Losers have each other’s backs, and they’ll all be there to keep him going. 

Richie looked across the bridge for a little while, then walked back to his car, feeling better than he had in a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> i tried to get the dialogue as close as i could to the movie, but the movie came out last week so i only had very scattered theater-shots to go off of, so pardon me if i got the dialogue wrong. ill probably come back and edit it after i get the movie w/subtitles.
> 
> anyway, i hope you enjoyed this fic! it was my first time ever writing reddie, so i hope i did our boys justice. feel free to come scream about ch.2 with me on my tumblr, @crassjellyfish, or in the comments here 💕💕💕


End file.
